In Your Community
Hancock County, Maine

• University of Maine Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners have received in-depth horticultural training from university educators and industry experts. In return, they volunteer time in their communities.
  • Currently we have twenty-four new program participants with nearly 100 active UMaine Extension Master Gardener Volunteer Program graduates volunteering in Hancock County.
     
• Lose & Win is sponsored by Healthy Hancock, a coalition of organizations, including University of Maine Cooperative Extension, working together to improve the health of residents in Hancock County. At the end of the 2007 sessions, teams celebrated the completion of this program losing an accumulated grand total of 2,645.9 pounds.
   
• University of Maine Cooperative Extension Eat Well program staff members provide nutrition education to limited-income citizens, including food stamp recipients, throughout the state. Participants learn—in small groups, in schools, in their homes or through correspondence courses—strategies for expanding their food dollars and eating well on low budgets.
   
• Our small- and home-based business education program works with colleagues across the state and business assistance agencies by providing monthly confidential consultations to more than 30 businesses and potential businesses.
   
• 4-H is the youth development program of University of Maine Cooperative Extension.
  • Hancock County has one of the largest enrollments of 4-H participants and leaders. Some 128 youth are enrolled, as well as 87 adult leaders.
     
• Starting with Family Radio Forum in 1990, Talk of the Towns in 1993, Doing Business in 1999, and Common Health in 2002, University of Maine Cooperative Extension Educators in Hancock and Waldo Counties have produced and hosted lively and informative radio programs featuring guests from the region and the state who offer informational resources and insight into a variety of timely topics. Over the last year, we have produced and hosted 24 hour-long live public affairs radio programs, with an average listener base of 7,500-9,500 people.
   
• Based on a successful model in Oregon, University of Maine Cooperative Extension has established Maine Solutions to engage stakeholders in framing issues and working out solutions to complex public concerns.
   
• University of Maine Cooperative Extension and Sea Grant staff collaborate in a statewide Marine Extension Team. Its members live and work along the coast, providing educational and applied research programs to Maine’s citizens in the areas of coastal community development, ecosystem health, fisheries and aquaculture.

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